Yooo guys, I'm so sorry about keeping y'all waiting for an update. This whole COVID-19 and Police Brutality situation is really causing my anxiety to go through the roof, especially since I'm in a position where I can't do much besides sign petitions.

So while I can't donate or protest, I do hope that this chapter brings some light into these dark times.

Chapter Summary: Henry wakes up the next morning, and has to deal with the fact that he overworked himself.

Viva La on with the Story!

The next morning came with an IV stuck in Henry's arm and a throbbing head.

The sidekick didn't particularly remember waking up after the fire, all that stuck with him was a blur of colors and events that eventually lead him to getting back to the Mancave to be bombarded by a worried Charlotte.

She and Schwoz must have moved him to the guest room after that.

The blonde groaned, and a wave of hunger-induced nausea hit.

He needed food, like, yesteryear.

The teenager slowly sat up, and swung his legs over the side of the bed. He was wearing his pajama pants, which suggested he had blown a bubble sometime since the fire, but again, he couldn't recall.

Not wanting to bother with wheeling the IV around with him, but also knowing that he wouldn't have it if he didn't need it, Henry unhooked the bag from the carrier. He held it by his teeth in a slight attempt to keep it elevated.

It took him slightly longer to get to the main section of the Man Cave than it usually did, but he really didn't pay the time any mind. He ordered the first thing he could think of to eat (ten servings of it, he might add, because he knew he'd need way more than usual), and then immediately collapsed onto the couch.

Jasper entered when Henry was on his third serving, and the other blonde did a double take when he realized that the sidekick was awake.

"What are you doing up?" He asked, distress seeping through the air as he noticed the IV bag hanging from the backrest of the couch.

The sixteen year old immediately hurried to find something to properly hang the bag up on as Henry continued to eat.

"Bro, I'm... Are you sure I'm not like actually dying?" Henry questioned. Jasper grabbed a clip and attached the IV to what looked like a coat rack, but the sidekick wasn't sure.

Jasper scoffed, and gave Henry a quick hug from behind. "We're sure. You were just severely exhausted and had nothing in your system besides that gross powdery stuff when we picked you up. You'll be better after some nutrition, which…" The blonde stared at the meal that Henry had ordered, which happened to be a plate of spaghetti. "That's not going to cut for. Do you want one of those packets that Schwoz made, or do you want actual food?"

"Oh, God, please, real food. I've only had like three of those packets and I already hate them."

Jasper let out an empathetic laugh. "Okay, well what if I added some flavor or something to it? Or like, mixed it with a milkshake, would you eat it then?"

Henry tilted his head as he thought. "Now you might have something going there, Jasp. Sure, why not. If it'll keep me full for a few hours."

Jasper snapped his fingers and sent a pair of finger guns towards the sidekick in acknowledgement. Henry only hummed as he continued to eat, and instead grabbed the remote to turn on the TV.

Jasper sat down a few minutes later with a plate of salmon and salad, and handed the blonde a large milkshake that might have been cookies and cream, but it was most likely just pieces of undissolved powder. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best combination of flavors, but Henry really didn't care. He ended up scarfing them down before the next episode of Dog Judge even started.

The door to the back room swung open a few minutes later, and Charlotte stepped out with her phone in her hand.

Henry greeted her with a tone was was way too enthusiastic considering that he was literally hooked up to an IV. Charlotte visibly mirrored the opinion by her eyebrows shooting to her hairline as she blinked rapidly in surprise.

"Don't you dare say that I should be resting, I'm doing exactly that by sitting on the couch and watching TV." The sidekick said before the girl could even open her mouth.

Charlotte's mouth quickly shut as she passed it for a gulp of air, and her lips pursed.

"I'm just trying to make your life easier, but go off I guess." She eventually shrugged, and went back to typing on her phone.

Jasper groaned. "Oh, great, you've activated Passive-Aggressive Charlotte. Great job, Henry."

The other blonde sent a shit-eating grin. "Hey, don't get mad at me," he whined, gesturing to the IV in his arm, "I'm Babie with an I-E."

"No, you're Puberty Boy, you freak of nature." Came Charlotte's voice from across the room, which was quickly followed by, "Jasper, is this from last night or this morning?"

The teen in question turned to see the coca skinned girl holding up the empty package of substance powder. "That's from this morning. He already drank all of it." He answered.

Henry rolled his eyes, and cranked up the volume on the TV. "Damn. Y'all be treating me like I'm four years old."

Charlotte whacked the sidekick over the side of the head with her hand as she strolled behind the couch. "Maybe if you stopped making logical decisions that only a four year old would deem proper, then we would stop treating you like one."

Henry slapped his non-IV'd arm against his chest in mock-hurt. "Damn. Right in the heart. Passive-Aggressive Charlotte is in full power mode."

Jasper started singing You Give Love a Bad Name softly after Henry made the statement, somehow deciding the phrase was associated with the song. The super powered teen joined in after a few verses, and Charlotte tried her best not to hit them again as the two boys sang terribly.

The girl eventually slipped into the couch on Henry's left, and the blonde immediately cooed overdramatically and draped his arms around Charlotte in a loopy hug.

"I'm sorry Charlotte, I know you're just trying to keep me alive." He swooned, turning the 'r's in the sentence to 'w's.

Charlotte smirked, and patted Henry's head sarcastically. "It's okay, Babie, I know you're sorry."

Henry laughed, before wincing as he bent his arm too far and caused the IV to stab him a bit. The sidekick cursed under his breath, and carefully unwrapped himself from around Charlotte.

He frowned as he stared at the crook of his arm, and Jasper took his wrist gently.

"Yeah, sorry, we thought you'd be out a lot longer than you were, so I just inserted it there. I would have done it lower but I'm still learning how to find the veins down near wrists."

Henry hummed in acknowledgement. "It's fine, man. You did your best. How much longer do I need this in for?"

Jasper's eyebrows raised slightly and he tilted his head to the side as he pondered. "Gimme a minute, and I can tell you." He said, before lifting himself to his feet and strolling into the backroom.

The blonde came back out a few minutes later with a device, and started scanning Henry with it. While he did so, the sidekick turned to Charlotte again.

"Hey, do you know where my phone is? I should probably text my dad or someone to let him know I'm okay."

"Yeah, we plugged it in last night, I think it's in Ray's room since he was the only one with an extra outlet since me and Jasper took up the one out here."

The superpowered teen blinked. "You guys stayed the night?"

Charlotte looked at him quizzically. "You really think we'd leave you alone with Schwoz? He'd make you go insane, especially with all them drugs in your system." She joked, nodding towards the bag that Jasper was messing with again.

Henry hummed in agreement. "Fair enough...where is Schwoz, anyways?"

"I think he's trying to reach someone to contact Ray faster than that letter we sent? I don't know." she admitted, "We mailed it out yesterday, but he's trying to find someone trusted with an E-mail or phone over there that can relay the message…"

"Yeah, I guess." Henry looked down at the table for a second, brow furrowing. He didn't want to be reminded about how long Ray would be gone, but the stress of his situation made it hard not to. Especially since he had actually passed out on the job last night…

He didn't want to necessarily say that his boss protected him during battle, but there was safety in numbers. Even someone with an inflated ego like Ray's knew that. Henry knew how lucky he was to be fighting fire instead of a villain last night. There's no telling what would have happened if he had been facing Minyac, or worse.

Henry was snapped back by Jasper. "I'd keep the IV in for another hour or so, Hen. Your vitals are normalish, but better safe than sorry."

"Wait but my phone." Henry complained, knowing that Charlotte would not let him walk around with the makeshift IV stand.

"I'll go get it, you drama queen." Jasper laughed. "Just give me a minute."

The blonde took the device and walked back into the backroom, and Henry turned his attention back to the TV.

Charlotte had switched it to Investigation Discovery, which she may or may not have gotten Piper hooked on back at home.

Henry watched in mild fascination for a few minutes, listening to Jasper mess around in the background, before turning to Charlotte. "There been anything that Kid Danger couldn't do today?"

The girl bit at a hangnail, gaze not leaving the TV. "I mean, the better question is when isn't there something you and Ray have to do, but yeah. Luckily, the police were aware that you obviously needed rest, so they stepped up their game for at least a few hours."

A faint laugh filled the room as Henry let out a fast breath through his nose. "That's surprising."

Charlotte agreed, and her eyes trailed to Jasper as he came up beside Henry's left shoulder and handed him his phone.

The sidekick thanked his friend briefly as he took the device, and immediately pulled up the messages.

The app pulled up the conversation between him and his Dad. Some text that was obviously sent by Jasper spouting some bullshit about an early-morning shift and a quick two-word response from Jake. The other eleven were from Piper—not unexpected, but the subject was what got him.

She had rambled about the fire and Kid Danger fainting for like three messages, which Henry was more annoyed than surprised about, but then there was a news article link she sent. It was just full of non-super researched bullshit explanations as to what was happening to him.

The teen rolled his eyes, and quickly sent back a quick text that would pass as a suitable answer to the topic.

The TV droned on about the details of some murder scene for a few moments, before Henry sighed.

"Do you think Kid Danger needs to make a PSA about this situation?" He ventured, leaning his head back so that it rested against the back of the couch and he was staring at the ceiling. "I mean, people are just gonna keep on making up really stupid explanations…"

Charlotte turned to look at Henry quizzically. "Do you want to make one?" She asked.

The blonde shrugged as Jasper plopped down next to him again. "I dunno...I hate all of these rumours being said about me."

"Rumours? Henry—you're a goddamn celebrity, you should be used to this by now." Jasper semi-chastized, his attention pulled back to the TV at some flashing police lights.

Henry groaned, and rolled his neck along the back of the couch so that he was facing Jasper.

"I know," he complained, "it's just that I really hate secrets…"

"Yeah I know, but I personally wouldn't want the entire world to know that I'm going through puberty again." Jasper said in a small attempt at humor.

Henry only groaned at the reminder, and slapped his hands onto his face (mindful of the IV), covering his eyes and letting out a low-pitched noise from the back of his throat.

Jasper let out a sympathetic sigh himself, and he caught Charlotte's gaze briefly in a wordless exchange that Henry didn't see.

"Maybe just tweet something vague on Twitter? Let people know that you're fine and we have the situation handled but not let any details get out?" He suggested. Charlotte hummed in agreement, finding Jasper's solution to be satisfactory.

Henry dropped a hand so that he could peer at the other blonde. "Yeah, that sounds good…"

He trailed off and reached down to his side to feel around for his phone. He grabbed it after a few seconds, and brought it back up to his eyesight.

A small bout of silence filled the room as the sidekick typed around on his phone a bit, and Jasper focused back onto the TV with Charlotte as the show continued to play.

Henry's Twitter was bombarded with comments and tweets and he had gotten a couple thousand more followers within the past hour. The blonde got sidetracked with the amount of attention his account was getting.

A quick tweet was made, and it said something along the lines of 'thanks for the concern everyone, we've got the situation under control, we'll give a better explanation later on'.

He turned his phone off immediately after— Jasper's phone buzzed because he had Kid Danger's post notifications on— and stretched.

"I need a shower." Henry stated, but made no movement to get up.

"Yeah, you still smell like smoke and sweat." Charlotte admitted, crinkling her nose a bit as she said so.

Henry sent her a horrified look, and lifted his arm slightly to get a whiff the damage.

"Damn, you're right." The sidekick laughed, before turning to Jasper. "Can I even shower with this IV in?"

Jasper glanced down at his friends arm briefly. "I mean yeah, but you'd have to cover it with some plastic wrap...it's probably be easier to just remove it because you'd have to work around your clothes."

"True...but now that I've had that thought physically said to me I'm gonna fucking die if I don't take one immediately, so can I go ahead and take it out?"

Jasper sat up and grabbed a water he had set on the table earlier; apprehensiveness was obvious in his posture. "I mean, I guess yeah you can, but I would—"

The blonde didn't get to finish the sentence, because as soon as Henry had heard the word 'yeah', he had grabbed the tube attached to him and yanked it out.

The sidekick promptly yelled in pain, and a stream of blood flew through the air and pelted Charlotte's shirt.

The girl immediately squealed in disgust, and jumped to her feet.

"Henry, what the fuck?" She exclaimed, as Jasper jumped to his feet and grabbed some gauze and bandages as fast as possible.

"Christ, I'm so fucking sorry." Henry said through a bout of laughter and pain tears, "I got too excited."

"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock!" Jasper exclaimed, grabbing Henry's arm and quickly binding the opening in his skin. "If you had let me finish I was going to say that I'd need to put pressure on the area before I took it out, and that you'd need to take it super easy, but you were an idiot instead."

"You must have the braincell, then." Henry snorted as Jasper let his arm go. He attempted to bend it experimentally, but couldn't get it very far because of how tight it was binded. "Speaking of, how is it that you only have the braincell when it comes to medical stuff? I'm pretty sure you absolutely bombed our last history test."

"Absolutely no clue." The blonde stated as Charlotte immediately ripped off her shirt and chucked it across the room in disgust. "Charlotte hates any bodily fluid as she just flawlessly demonstrated, and Schwoz's medical history is questionable, and it comes to me really easily, so…"

"Not gonna question it, then."

"Fair enough."

Charlotte stomped by angrily in her sports bra, and up through the doorway leading to Ray's room.

"I'm borrowing one of Ray's shirts, you idiots better start washing mine before I get back. I am not going to have one of my only good white shirts ruined by your stupidity." She grumbled.

Henry leaned against the back of the couch. "I love you, Charlotte!" He yelled.

He only got a middle finger in return.

Jasper picked up Charlotte's shirt from its place on the floor, and quickly threw at Henry, who caught it with ease.

"Can you throw that in the laundry room on the way to the shower?"

Henry groaned loudly and over dramatically, and flopped off of the couch like he had suddenly turned into a puddle of liquid.

He awkwardly ducked out from under the table and stood up, turning and following in Charlotte's footsteps.

"Yeah I can do it, but it'll cost you $5.00 per minute."

"Okay, Boomer."

Henry gasped overdramatically, and rested a hand over his chest as he feigned pain. "How dare. Rude. Offensive."

Jasper cracked a smile. "You know what else is offensive? Your stench."

Henry immediately turned back around and hurried to the bathroom. "You're right, but I'm not gonna let you say it to my face!" He yelled over his shoulder, and a door was slammed in the distance.

Thanks for reading, sorry if this chapter is a little...bland. I thought some normal teen interaction might be needed.

"No Justice, No Peace." —Black Lives Matter Movement, 2020

Thanks for reading, my lovelies. Stay strong.

- LocalDragonHaunt